Dar fights for legality to relocate Maasai in face of fresh protests

Tanzania’s operation to relocate Maasai herders from Loliondo has come under fresh international criticism over rights violations claims. A Human Rights Watch report published on April 27 repeated previous calls for an immediate halt to the “forced evictions” from Loliondo, which is located within the Ngorongoro wildlife conservation area, to Msomera, about 600 kilometres away, saying the programme was in violation of Maasai “rights to land, property, livelihood and culture.”

But, days before the report was published, Tanzania government representatives on April 24 appeared at a United Nations conference in New York to insist that the relocation plan was there to stay and outside interference on the matter was unwelcome.